American Girl is an American line of 18-inch (46 cm) dolls released in 1986 by Pleasant Company. The dolls portray eight- to eleven-year-old girls of a variety of ethnicities. They are sold with accompanying books told from the viewpoint of the girls. Originally the stories focused on various periods of American history, but were expanded in 1995 to include characters and stories from contemporary life. A variety of related clothing and accessories is also available.

The Historical Characters line of 18-inch dolls were initially the main focus of Pleasant Company. This product line aims to teach aspects of American history through a six-book series from the perspective of a 8- to 11-year-old girl living in that time period. Although the books are written for an eight to eleven year-old target audience, they endeavor to cover significant topics such as child labor, child abuse, poverty, racism, slavery, animal abuse and war in manners appropriate for the understanding and sensibilities of their young audience.[2]

In 1995 Pleasant Company released a line of contemporary dolls: American Girls of Today. In 2006 the product line was renamed Just Like You; it was changed again in 2010, to My American Girl, and in 2015 to Truly Me.[3] This line has included over sixty-one different dolls over the years. Each doll has a different combination of face mold; skin tone; eye color; and hair color, length, texture, and/or style. American Girl states that this variety allows customers to choose dolls that "represent the individuality and diversity of today's American girls."[2] A wide variety of contemporary clothing, accessories, and furniture is also available, and there are regular releases and retirements to update this line. Each year, a Girl of the Year doll is released who has her own special talent. For example, Mia St. Clair, the Girl of the Year for 2008, did ice skating, and Marisol Luna, the Girl of the Year for 2005, was a dancer.

Bitty Baby is a line of baby dolls targeted to children aged three and older. They are half the price of full size American Girl dolls. The Bitty Twins line debuted in 2003 to represent slightly older toddlers and/or preschoolers. The Bitty Twins are the same size as the Bitty Baby dolls.[2]

A reboot of the Historical Characters line dubbed as BeForever was launched in August 2014, complete with redesigned outfits, a two-volume compilation of previously-released books, and a "Journey Book" for each character, with players taking the role of a present-day girl who found her way to the past and met up with one of the Historical girls. The line also coincided with the relaunch of Samantha Parkington, whose collection was previously discontinued in 2008.[4][5]

Mattel has announced in October 2013 that American Girl will be opening new stores[11] in partnership with Indigo Books and Music in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada.[12][13] The company has also expressed interest in other overseas ventures, as they are seeing orders from Europe and Latin America.[14] They also have opened an Orlando store in the Fall 2014 at The Florida Mall. The company has also announced that they're expanding their operations in Mexico, with two stores at El Palacio de Hierro’s Perisur and Interlomas in Mexico City and a third at Polanco in 2015.[15][16]

The American Girl magazine is run by the American Girl company. It was started by the Pleasant Company in Middleton, Wisconsin in 1992,[17] with the first issue dated January 1993. Aimed towards girls ages 8 through 14, the bimonthly magazine includes articles, recipes, advice columns, fiction, arts and crafts, and activity ideas. Girls can choose to either get a year of magazines(6 issues), or two years of magazines(12 issues).

American Girl launched Innerstar University, an online virtual world featuring the My American Girl contemporary doll line, on July 13, 2010. Access to the online world is via a Campus Guide, bundled with purchase of a My American Girl doll, which contains an access code for the creation of a doll avatar that then navigates the various games, shops, and challenges of the virtual campus of Innerstar U.[18] The launch was simultaneous with Shine on Now, a fund-raising effort Kids In Distressed Situations, National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions, National Wildlife Federation, and Save the Children charities.[19] The company has also donated "almost $500,000" over several years to national non-profit homeless housing group HomeAid.[20] These contributions are mainly through its Project Playhouse program.[21]

The company has drawn criticism for the expense of the dolls, which cost $115 without accessories as of December 2014.[22] Buyers can easily spend more than $600 for a doll, outfits, accessories and lunch in the company's store in New York.[23] Some aspects of the doll's characters and history have also provoked controversy. Some observers questioned why Addy, American Girl's first African-American historical character, was portrayed first as a slave (in later stories Addy and her family gain their freedom after the Civil War), while Cecile Rey, American Girl's second black historical character, was portrayed as a well-to-do black girl.[24] In 2005, residents of Pilsen (a neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois) criticized a passage in the book associated with the Latina-American doll Marisol, claiming it inaccurately depicted their neighborhood as dangerous. A senior public relations associate for American Girl responded to critics saying: “We feel that this brief passage has been taken out of context in the book."[25] The 2009 limited-edition release of Gwen, a homeless American Girl character, was also controversial.[26][27]

In 2005, some pro-life and Catholic groups criticized the company for donating funds to the organization Girls, Inc., which supports underprivileged girls and promotes abortion rights and acceptance of homosexuality.[28][29]

The American Girl Place store in New York City was the center of a labor dispute with Actors' Equity Association (AEA). On August 3, 2006, 14 of the 18 adult actors at the store's now defunct theater went on strike.[30] AEA reached a two-year contract effective April 1, 2008. All American Girl Place theatres were subsequently closed in September of that year.[31]

In May 2014, the company was met with criticism on social media[32] over its decision to discontinue four characters from the historical collection, two of them, namely African-American Cécile Rey and Chinese-American Ivy Ling, representing ethnic minorities. They, however, defended their move as a business strategy, as they decided to "move away from the character-friend strategy within the line".[33] A petition has since been filed through the activist group 18MillionRising.org for the company to provide a replacement for Ivy.[34] The company has also drawn criticism for its recent focus on the contemporary line, specifically the Girl of the Year characters and their backstory, to which was maligned for lacking depth and more important issues in comparison to the Historical/BeForever characters' backstories.[35]My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series creator Lauren Faust also expressed her concern and criticism of the line in a Twitter post, stating it "was once radically positive for girls before it was homogenized for money".[36]

In 2015 the American Girl fan community, more specifically the practice of creating and uploading doll-based stop motion videos, was featured in a news report for BBC News' Trending site, along with interviews and videos from several prominent doll community members, namely AGSmiless, Basilmentos and Starryeyeschick. Besides stop-motion animations and music videos set to popular music, the report covers recurring subject matters in the said clips such as cyberbullying and other social issues, along with doll customization, photoshoots and unboxing videos showing new and discontinued clothes, accessories and dolls from the company.[37][38]